Hair drying means provided with silica gel



MW 33, w41?, E. J. CULLIGAN YEn" AL 420,353

HAIR: DRYING MEANS PROVIDED WITH SILICA GEL 2 Sheets- Sheet l Filed Aug. 4, 1945 f INV T01154 EMMEN' IUu/GAN a3 33, 39471 E. J. CULLIGAN TAL 2,420,353

y HAIR DRYING MEANS PROVIDED WITH SILICA GEL Filedmg. 4, 1945 2 sheets-sneeze IVENroRs FMMELF .t alfa/6AM ifa/26E bf Kil/M5 "Y M. @my

Patented May 13, 1947 HAIR DRYING MEANS PROVIDED WITH SILICA GEL Emmett. J. Culligan, San Bernardino, Calif., and

George H. Klumb,

.to Culligan Zeolite Company,

Northbrook, Ill., assignors Northbrook, lll.

Application August 4, 1945, Serial No. 608,880

2 claims. (ci. .a4-95) Our invention relates to an apparatus for drying hair, and has for its object to provide a simple and yet highly efcient arrangement to be applied over the head and upon the hair when it has been Wet from any form of treatment, and which will automatically withdraw all moisture from the hair, without the use of any heating means or moving air.

In modern beauty culture the care of the hair, particularly womens hair, is perhaps the most important single feature. Various methods of caring for the hair, setting it by nger waving,v

permanent waving and other forms of hair treat-v ment, involve the use of liquids which leave the hair wet after the treatment has been applied. This wet hair must, of course, be dried.

In methods employed heretofore, the drying was effected by means of a combination of heat and moving air. In general some kind of a hood is applied over the head with an air space between it and the wet hair and a regulated blast of air is driven under the hood, and at the same time this air is heated to a suitable degree. The complete drying often takes as much as two hours time. Furthermore, not only is the time of the customer thus consumed but there is a condition of discomfort involved in this form of treatment. Also there is a great deal of noise which makes it impossible to hear any one talk and which may, under certain conditions, be injurious to the hearing organs.

We have discovered a very simple and yet highly effective method of drying hair which avoids all the disadvantages of the above form of drying, which does not use moving air or heated air, does not cause any unpleasant noise, and which completes the operation of drying perfectly in an amazingly short time, without any discomfort, with no difiiculty as to talking and hearing, and with a perfect drying action. This discovery grows out of the properties of certain'dehydrating materials such as silica gel. We have discovered that if a layer of silica gel of suitable thickness, and held to conform to the head of the subject immediately over the wet hair, is employed, the liquid and moisture will be adsorbed in the silica. gel very rapidly. The cooling effect of rapid evaporation is offset by the heat released from the silica gel itself, so that no unpleasant or discomforting eiect of cooling or heating follows.

As is well known, silica gel may be repeatedly 'and for an indefinite number of times reactivated to become fully active by merely heating the same under prescribed and known conditions. It follows that a given quantity of silica gel, sumcient to effect the rapid and comfortable .drying above referred to, may, -by means of intervening reactivation, be made to serve the drying purpose over and over again indefinitely.

In carrying out our invention we propose to form a hood-like structure with any desired kind of foraminous supporting structure adjacent the body of the hair as worn, and which includes a chamber back of the contacting surface adapted to be lled with dehydrating material, specifically silica gel. The back of the chamber can be formed either of some cloth material or of solid sheet metal, and in either case will be provided with an opening normally closed by a lling cap through which the silica gel may be introduced into the chamber.

It is a principal object of our invention, therefore, to provide a method of drying the hair which consists in applying to the hair a layer of activated dehydrated material, preferably in granular form, and also preferably silica gel, and to maintain this layer of dehydrated material in an area adjacent the wet omdamp hair for a period cf time sufficient to permit all the free moisture in and upon said hair to be adsorbed by the silica gel.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a hood-like structure adapted to be worn over the wet or damp hair of a subject wherein the contacting surface adjacent the hair will be of foraminous material and wherein there is pro vided a chamber in general conforming to the shape of the hood in which` is positioned a layer of dehydrating material such as silica gel of a sufficient thickness to readily adsorb all moisture in and upon the hair.

It is a further .object of our invention to form the rear wall of the hood-like member with a screw-threaded opening in which a cap may be inserted and held, whereby the dehydrating material such as silica gel may be introduced into the chamber formed therein and from time to time may be withdrawn therefrom for reactivating.

It is a further object ofour invention in one of its forms, to form the hood-like member entirely of metal, as with a sheet lmetal back and a wire gauze front for contacting lthe wet or damp hair and also having a lling cap for introducing the dehydrating material such as silica gel into the chamber, whereby the entire assemblage, including theslica gel therein,`may be transferred to an oven and be properly heated to reactivate the silica gel therein, thus ena-bling the method and 'used in t e home.

It is a further object of our invention to form in connection with the aforesaid hood-like member embodying a chamber lled with silica gel, 5 scarf-like members attached at the center to the upper part of the hood-like member and adapted to be wound about the outside of said member to form inl effect a turban enclosing the member, and to in this manner increase the effectiveness of the drying action and retain the latent heat released by adsorbing of the moisture to keep the head warm while the water is being evaporated therefrom.

'I'he full objects and advantages of our invention will appear in connection with the detailed description thereof tc be given in the annexed specification, and the novel features of the invention by which the above-named advantageous results are obtained will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings illustrating an application of my invention in some of its forms:

Fig. 1 shows the apparatus in position on the head of a subject. 25

Fig, 2 is a sectional view through a form of the apparatus with reticulate or foraminous cloth material forming .both the inner and outer walls.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 2, showing the outer wall formed of sheet metal and the inner wall of some foraminous material such as wire gauze, the entire assemblage being of metal.

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the device of Fig. 2 showing the manner of attachment of the scarfs by which the turban effect of Fig. 1 is obtained.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation view of the device of Fig. 2 as Worn, also showing the scarf-like members before the turban is formed.

As illustrated, referring first to Figs. 2, 3 and 4, I provide a hood-like member I0 which is formed 40 with an inner contact wall I I of some foraminous or reticulate cloth material such as jean cloth, which is shaped to t over thehead of a subject and enclose the hair, as indicated in Fig. 1. This shaping on the inside may be effected by any desired means; as shown, there is a light wire framework comprising transverse wires I2, I3, I4 and I5, which are interconnected with longitudinal wires I5, I6, I1, I8, I9 and 20, to make alight open framework upon which is laid the foraminous cover member II. `As shown in Fig, 2, the back wall 2l is likewise made of foraminous material and has a cap 22 which is threaded into a socket 23 and is used for filling the cap-like member. This is filled with a fairly small grained dehydrated material, preferably silica gel, indicated generally at 24. When lled, the body of silica gel 24 will extend over the whole contact wall I I to provide a layer of suiiicient depth to furnish abundant dehydrating material to take all of the water from the hair no matter how wet it may be.

The form of the invention shown in Fig. 3 has the same `support for the contact member as in Fig. 2, -butf the contact support 25 in this form will be made of wire gauze instead of cloth fabric and the back 26 of the member will be formed entirely of thin sheetmetal. Upon this sheet metal is an internally threaded youtwardly ex- 70 tending flange 21 which has screwed into it the llng cap 28. The two lling caps are identical but in the form of Fig. 2 the socket member 23 is formed with a horizontally extended flange 29 through apertures in which extend sewing 2,42o,sse y 4 threads SII which secure the socket upon the fabric back cover 2|.

As indicated in unwrapped form in Figs. 4 and 5, and wrapped into a turban in Fig. 1, we provide a long scarf-like member which is secured at its center at 3| to the front upper part of the outer casing 2| (or where the metallic form was used to the outer casing 26). The ends 32 and l! of the scarf-like member extend outwardly a sumcient distance so that this scarf may be wrapped 'over the top and about the dehydrating hood in the form of a turban, as well shown in Fig. 1. This keeps in the heat of adsorption in the silica gel and aids in effecting rapid drying of the hair.

The advantage of our invention will be apparent from the foregoing description thereof. In use, the hair is first treated and set in the customary manner. This treatment leaves the hair wet with the liquids which are employed upon it. The hood member is ,then carefully placed upon the head so as to enclose the mass of wet hair and at the same time maintain its set. When so positioned upon the head al1 of the wet or moist hair will be within the member and its outer por tions will contact the foraminous contacting wall of the drying member.

After the member has been so positioned, the scarf portions 32 and 33,are wound about the drying member itself and so as to contact the forehead and neck and thus to produce an enclosing turban, which at the same time holds the drying member in position upon the head and insulates the silica gel from loss of heat generated by adsorbing moisture from the outside air, primarily important where the form of Fig. 2 is employed.

A furtherl advantage resides in the fact that the above arrangement is entirely practical and is comfortable and does not interfere with talking, reading, listening or the like. The drying process begins the moment the drying hood is placed upon the set hair. 'I'he rapid evaporation of water from the hair tends to cool the hair and the head, but this is largely offset by the heat released from the silica gel in adsorbing the water from the air, giving continuously comfortable temperatures about the head.

A particular advantage is found in the fact that while this drying method is carried on without any discomfort, the drying is effected with great rapidity. Instead of sitting for hours with the head in grave discomfort within a chamber wherein heat and moving air and intolerable noise exist, the subject in my method of drying is required to sit in comfort for only a short time. The drying is also more uniform and more certain to avoid the leaving of damp spots which 1frequently occur in the heat-blast air dryers now n use.

Another substantial and very genuine advantage comes from the fact that the silica gel can readily be reactivated |by the application of heat so as always to be in the best possible condition for quickly taking up moisture and can be used over and over again many times.

In the form of Fig. 3 where the drying member is entirely of metal the reactivation can be made in an oven within a home, so the appliance is thus readily available for repeated home use.

Whilelwe have shown in the drawings, as in l Figs. 1 and 3, a formed hood-like member which includes the silica gel, and with a front foraminous hair-contacting lwall formed either of cloth or woven wire, we do not wish to limit our invention to such a specific construction. Any

means of maintaining a. layer of silica gel of suitable thickness upon or in close proximity to a wet head of hair is within the scope of our invention, provided, of course. that the holding means next to the hair must have sufficient opening to the body of silica gel, such as is true of a contact member made of foraminous material.

Thus it is within the scope of our invention and-is contemplated by us that the layer of silica gel might be applied to the head by means of a suitable layer of silica gel held between-layers of cloth and applied to the wet hair in a. turbanlike fashion. Also, such an application o f the layer of silica gel can be held in position by the use of an elastic band. Other forms of holding the layer of silica gel adjacent or in contact with the hair for drying may be employed without departing from the scope of our invention.

We claim: a

1. A hair dryer comprising a hood-like member formed with walls spaced to form a closed chamber betweenthem, the outer wall being of sheet metal, the inner wall being of wire gauze, of a form, s ize` and position to fit over the head of a subject and enclose wet hair therein, the said chamber being lled with silica gel, whereby the entire hair dryer may be subjected to a.

requisite amount of heat as is a domestic oven to reactivate the dehydrating material, and flexlble means to be positioned over the hood-like i to fit over the head of a subject and enclose wet hair therein, land the space between the walls being filled with silica gel, and a scarf fastened to the member intermediate its ends and adapted to be wrapped about the member in the form of a. turban to retain the head adsorption so that the cooling effect of evaporation may be neutralized on the head.

EMMETT J. CULLIGAN.

`GEORGE H. KLUMB.

- REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,210,862 Tronstad Aug. 6, 1940 2,127,121 Kelley Aug. 16, 1938 2,293,161 Miller v Aug. 18, 1942 2,248,389 Sanders et al. July 8, 1941 

